International IMPAC Dublin Award Longlist Announced. . .

It's one of the longest longlists and the winner won't be announced until next June, but the full list of 162 nominees has just been posted.  They come from libraries in 126 cities, in 43 different countries. 42 of the titles are books in translation from 14 languages. 35 of the titles are first novels.  I always like to see which books are nominated by the Canadian libraries - Linden MacIntryre's Bishop's Man and Annabel Lyon's The Golden Mean were two titles that received multiple nominations.  You can see the full list of nominations by each library here.  The shortlist comes out on April 12th, 2011 with the winner announced on June 15th.

November Inspiration. . .

One of the blogs I pop over to when I feel the need to get inspired and dream a little, is A Bloomsbury Life. It's written by Lisa Borgnes Giramonti, a blogger living in Los Angeles, and I love the photos she posts, her thoughts on creativity and work-life balance, and her love of books and all things bookish.  One of her latest posts is entitled Looking Bookish and is about being inspired by Penguin Classics to knit a scarf featuring her favourite books. She also has some great ideas for knitting sweaters inspired by Howard's End, Middlemarch and An Enchanted April.

This is the book I'm taking home over the weekend to gape at in admiration.  Knitting Block by Block by Nicky Epstein is absolutely gorgeous!  I'm not a great knitter, but I'm totally inspired to try some of these blocks in order to work on new techniques with (hopefully) a minimal wool and time commitment.  I love the idea of sewing together a bunch of different blocks to make a beautiful afghan, or scarf, or using one block and making it the center feature of a cozy pillow. Some of these blocks are so stunning, I think they'd even look terrific framed on the wall (I'd frame them without the glass to allow the textures to pop).

Lest We Forget. . .

Two timely books to recommend today.  I just finished reading Scott Chantler's new graphic novel Two Generals. It's the story of his grandfather, Law Chantler,  who with his best friend Jack Chrysler, joined the Highland Light Infantry of Canada during the Second World War.  The story covers their intensive training in England for the D-Day invasion (the use - and uselessness - of bicycles as standard equipment issued was a fascinating bit of historical information that was new to me), their landing on Juno Beach and their subsequent involvement in the bloody Battle of Buron, an essential and crucial part of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in which many Canadians lost their lives. It's a very moving story about friendship and bravery, told with honesty and even humour at times, as it also incorporates the daily lives of the soldiers during their training and before the battles. A great book to recommend to high school students.

Another book that is on my to-read list is Diana Souhami's new biography of Edith Cavell, the WW1 nurse who was executed by the Germans for helping English soldiers escape Belgium.  Part of the fascination I had with reading Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, so many years ago, were her descriptions of nursing during that period and the complex and sometimes demoralizing hierarchy in the  profession. And I'm always fascinated by the many stories of women who participated - and in many cases died - during that war.  Thanks to dovegreyreader who alerted me to the book in this post.

The COOLEST BUILDING in Toronto!

Recently I went to visit the new Kids Can Press office in the new Corus Building located on Queens Quay in Toronto. I will let the pictures do the talking...BTW THEY HAVE A SLIDE THAT IS THREE STORIES HIGH...nuff said.

Word & Film Website. . .

Last night, I finally got around to seeing the film of Never Let Me Go, based of course on Kazuo Ishiguro's chilling novel.  I thought it was a beautiful film, very moving and faithful to the book and with some terrific performances by Carey Mulligan and new "it boy" Andrew Garfield in particular.  You can read an interesting interview with Garfield here on Word & Film, a new website that Random House has set up to explore the connections between books and film.  Worth checking out from time to time if you are a film buff.  For instance, you can also see the movie trailer here for the upcoming version of Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender.

TD Children's Book Awards

I'm just back from the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award ceremony in Toronto. What an evening! I definitely made the right choice when given the option of which awards ceremony to attend tonight. Sorry Giller Light- maybe next year!

The TD Awards boasted delectable appetizers, amazing children's book authors (it was a particular pleasure talking with Arthur Slade, Lesley Livingston, Janet McNaughton and Kenneth Oppel), the chance to catch up with customers I haven't seen in years, fabulous presenters, moving acceptance speeches, then when the awards presentation had wrapped up-glasses of champagne (or coffee for us commuters) and a dessert buffet that featured such treats as apple pie on a stick and cheesecake kebabs.

Several awards were presented over the course of the evening. Here are the winners:

The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction For Young People:

Vanishing Girl (The Boy Sherlock Holmes Book 3) by Shane Peacock (Tundra)

The Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction:

Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road by Priscilla Galloway with Dawn Hunter (Annick Press)

The Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award:

Timmerman Was Here by Colleen Sydor (Tundra)

The TD Canadian Children's Literature Award:

The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade (HarperCollins Canada)

I am a huge fan of the Hunchback Assignment series and of Arthur Slade in general, so seeing him win the $25,000 prize was a real thrill- the award really couldn't have gone to a nicer person! For more on this award, check out this Canadian Business article.

Congratulations also to author/illustrator Marie-Louise Gay for having her book Caramba chosen as the TD Grade One Book Giveaway, and to the finalists for each award. It must have been a hard decision for the jurors!

And The Small Press Takes the Big Prize. . .

Congratulations to Johanna Skibsrud and Gaspereau Press - her novel The Sentimentalists has just won the Giller Prize, Canada's largest literary prize.  

But if you've been following the story, it's really tough to buy a physical copy of the book in any store. The publisher prides itself on printing and producing all of their books themselves and they just can't speed up production enough to meet the huge demand.  You can see how they do it in these videos posted on their blog here. Whether this will drive massive sales to the e-book version, or readers will just be patient, remains to be seen.  I certainly want to read it - but only as a physical book. Are Gaspereau to be applauded for sticking to their mission and the quality of their books, or are they just being stubborn and unfair to their author?  The debate continues. Personally, while I do feel fbad or the author (although she has just picked up $50,000 which should keep her going for a while), I do think that Gaspereau's decision is a gutsy one and reminds us in this era of instant gratification and consumerism that some things are worth waiting for. After all, I still have my unread copy of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall still on the bedside table.  Reading isn't just about getting your hands on the latest thing and gobbling it up quickly just to look cool at cocktail parties.  I can wait for a physical copy of The Sentimentalists and at least know that there will be an extra aesthetic thrill to reading a beautifully produced book.  Having said that, I do feel badly for the booksellers - the Giller Prize drives people into the stores and results in a lot of sales right through the Christmas season, and they must feel so frustrated not being able to display a healthy stock of the book. Go to your local indie and place a special order for the book, knowing it may take a while.  You can buy something else while you're waiting.

NYRB Challenge # 46: Three Philosophers Walk Into a Room. . .

This is the longest it's taken me to finish an NYRB Classic for this challenge.  The World As I Found It by Bruce Duffy is a big book with small type. It also deals with complex philosophical ideas, much of which I had to read slowly and mull over.  In short it's a book partly about how people think  - about the world and their place in it - a complicated challenge to convey in prose. Still, I'm glad I persevered right to the end because the novel was also a poignant and fascinating look at three powerful and influential personalities living through turbulent times.

Firstly there's G.E. Moore, a philosopher whose ideas influenced many of the Bloomsbury set including Lytton Strachey, and who is touchingly portrayed as a rather sweet, confirmed old bachelor who unexpectedly finds happiness in a late marriage and fatherhood. Then there's the imposing, self-conscious and egotistic Bertrand Russell, forever obsessing about his love life and constantly insecure about his work which nevertheless brought him fame, if not fortune.  At the start of the novel he's involved in an uncomfortable affair with Ottoline Morrell, the society woman whose house at Garsington served as a salon for many famous writers and artists. Towards the end, he's running his own experimental school and watching his wife about to give birth to another man's child. There are many romantic entanglements inbetween. Into their academic - and personal lives - comes the brilliant yet troubled Ludwig Wittgenstein, who alternatively drives the other two crazy with his curt dismissals of their ideas, and fascinates them with the intensity and genius of his own.  His life story is the most strange and tragic.  He was the son of a rich but tyrannical father, and later on denounced all claims to his family's substantial fortune. His two elder brothers committed suicide, acts that continued to torment him throughout his life as does the guilt he felt over his sexuality. And then there's his obsession with discovering and perfecting the logic behind the language of philosophy and developing a philosophy of language.

It all sounds quite cerebral and deep, and parts of it certainly are.  But Duffy's writing about ideas is balanced by an energetic and detailed narrative prose that is quite engaging. He is equally good at describing with mischievous relish the eating habits of Cambridge dons, and then vividly portraying the horrors of the Eastern Front during the First World War several chapters later. Still, this won't be a book for everyone, although if you do like novels that fictionalize the lives of writers and historical figures, or enjoy reading about Bloomsbury and the cultural mood of these years, do give this a try. I'll admit a lot of the philosophy went over my head though, and I found myself nodding in agreement when I got to this passage:

Ethics was such a misery, thought Wittgenstein. Words were so slippery, and metaphors were all the more so, being instructive in almost equal measure to their power to distort. And in the end, words only evaded: our words could not justify, and further words and actions only muddied our questionable original intentions like a picture that has been too often erased and revised.  No, thought Wittgenstein, good or evil (if those were quite the words) were not to be broken down like salt in a crucible to get at the truth - it was a hollow nugget that clinked into the alchemist's dish. Somewhere, in the process, the spirit escaped.

Duffy's next novel, set for 2011 will be a fictionalized account of the life of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. For a shorter (though still head-shaking account) of some of Bertrand Russell's ideas, try the graphic novel Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis et al.

OPLA Readers' Advisory Picks Their Favourite Reads of 2010. . .

Lots of "best of" lists are already coming out, even with eight weeks left on the year.  I always like the lists of readers best and The Ontario Public Library Association Readers' Advisory Committee has come up with Top 5 Reads from each of its members.  Long time followers of this blog will recognize the names of many librarians who have contributed in the past to my requests for top 10 lists (and we'll continue that tradition in December) and one former Dewey Diva is also represented.  To see all their picks, click here.  Thanks to Only Connect for the link.

NYT Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year!

The New York Times has just released their Top Ten Best Illustrated Children's Books of the year and one of my Dewey Pick's was on it...hooray! Shadow is a beautiful wordless picture book by Suzy Lee who is also the author of Wave.
Other books on the list are:
Here Comes the Garbage Barge
Children Make Terrible Pets
Seasons
Busing Brewster
Big Red Lollipop
Henry In Love
A Sick Day for Amos McGee
Subway
Bink + Gollie

Native Trees of Canada

As soon as we heard about this book, we knew we had a winner. Native Trees of Canada was just launched on October 30th, and has already created quite a stir including this beautiful piece in the NYT. The story is quite simple: Leanne Shapton found the original 1917 edition at Monkey's Paw, a used bookstore in Toronto. She reworked the book and made it into this beautiful homage. Enjoy this celebration of Fall and Canada.

Friday Film Fest: Get Out Your String of Pearls. . .

Rosalyn has just given me a copy of a wonderful new biography of Coco Chanel by Justine Picardie, whose novel Daphne, a fictional account of Daphne du Maurier, I loved and reviewed here, a couple of years ago. I'm looking forward to reading Coco Chanel: The Legend and The Life; I spent over an hour in bed last night, just looking at all the gorgeous photos and artwork.  It's truly a beautifully designed and packaged book. And the author has a fun blog located here where she's detailing part of her book tour with lots of Chanel inspired photos.

I can't think of a better way to spend a chilly November weekend, then curled up on the sofa in some fabulously decadent silk pajamas with this book, a cup of hot cocoa (pun intended) and DVDs of two biographical films that explore very different aspects of Chanel's life.  Start with Coco Before Chanel with Audrey Tautou portraying the young Coco pulling herself out of poverty, and starting to design thanks to the help of a wealthy lover. Then move on to Coco & Igor that details the affair between the more established Chanel and the struggling composer Igor Stravinsky.  The interior set designs of this movie will leave you speechless - never has black and white looked so beautiful and glamourous. While I prefer the earlier movie, Coco & Igor does try to reproduce on film the opening night of Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring and the riots that followed.  For that alone, the film is worth seeing.

Song Lyrics Re-imagined. . .

I love it when book culture infiltrates other art forms (and vice versa).  This artist has re-imagined lyrices from The Smiths as Penguin paperbacks.  You can purchase these prints here.   (Thanks to The Second Pass for the link).

Happy Hallowe'en!

My daughter's b-day is very close to Hallowe'en, which happens to one of my favourite holidays. This year, instead of Loot Bags I was inspired by one of our books: No Bake Gingerbread Houses For Kids, and pre-made 11 gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate during the party. I love making gingerbread houses but the baking part is the hardest, especially making 11 of them!!! This book is awesome, and gave me lots of ideas. The picture beside is my daughter's creation.

The Danger of A Single Story

Maria from Tinlids recently posted this Ted Talk on her blog. Chimamanda Adichie talks about the danger of a single story and how important it is to have many different voices collected in our literature. She makes a very funny point about stereotypes in writing. After reading her book, someone had said to her how awful it was that all Nigerian men were abusers and wife beaters. Adichie responds that she had just read American Psycho and did not assume that all American men were murderous serial killers. As she so eloquently puts it "the consequence of a single story robs us of our dignity".

Can you hear Lara's Theme in the Background?. . .

It's hard to convey how truly beautiful this new edition of Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago is, unless you are actually holding a copy.  The translators are the married dynamic duo of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky who have recently done critically acclaimed translations of War and Peace, Anna Karenina and several Dostoevsky novels.  I've never read this classic before but started it last night, in preparation for the online discussion that will be taking place this month, hosted by Nonsuch Book.  There's plenty of time to join in - you have until November 16th to finish Part I, with discussion of the second part starting on November 30th.

Sunday Baking. . .

I've been travelling quite a bit this month so it was nice to finally have a relaxing Sunday at home.  And I really wanted to bake - something I haven't done in months.  Browsing through Nigella Lawson's scrumptious new cookbook, Kitchen, I decided to make her Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake (page 281).  Rosalyn is the real chef among us Deweys, but I do like the way Nigella conversationally writes out her steps; even I can follow along.  She's also no Martha Stewart so the photos of the finished cake will have the odd crack in the crust or mislaid crumb.  Hence, my cake came out looking almost identical to hers.

I thought the combination of chocolate and lime might be a bit odd, but the cake is wonderfully moist, which I'm guessing is due to the lime juice, or possibly the ground almonds. At any rate, it has a nice chocolatey taste that isn't too sweet and the lime doesn't overpower.  And it was really simple to make.

I've been a fan of Nigella ever since I found out she loves Marmite as much as I do (how often do you find that ingredient in cookbooks?) and in Kitchen, she does have a recipe for Spaghetti with Marmite (page 49) which I will definitely try. On my recent trip to London, I found THE most wonderful snack combination - oven roasted cashews coated with Marmite. Honestly, they were delicious! The best flavour pairing since chocolate and peanut butter. I'm already hounding my UK friends to send me some more.

Book Board Game. . .

Darn.  Why isn't this available in Canada?  The Great Penguin Bookchase is a board game where apparently you travel around the board, answering book triva questions and picking up mini-Penguins for your book cart along the way.  I want to play!!!!

Tangles

Tangles is a lovely book that shows the struggles and pain of a family dealing with Alzheimer's. Sarah Leavitt was recently interviewed by Shelagh Rogers on The Next Chapter. We were very excited to hear that it was nominated for a Writer's Trust Award; this is the first time a graphic novel has been nominated for the non-fiction prize.
Hooray!

Friday Film Fest: Lady Chatterley on Trial. . .

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Lady Chatterley trial in which Penguin Books was aquitted of obsencity charges for publishing the unexpurgated text of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.  There are a number of film adapations of the book, but I quite like The Chatterley Affair, a 2006 BBC production on the actual trial itself, which is available on DVD. The story follows two jurors who start an affair of their own during the trial, but while their story is fictional, the scenes set in the courtroom use the actual case transcripts. It's a fascinating look at the power of literature, the debates over sexuality and morality in the early 1960s and it has quite a few things to say about male perceptions of female readers and what they should and should not be reading. And yes, there's strong language and sexual content.

The Guardian has a piece on the censorship of this novel here.

Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels. . .

CBC's Canada Reads has posted the list of the top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the last decade as chosen by readers.  You can view the full list here and vote for your favourite to make it into the top 10.  I'm really happy to see a number of these books on the list - Conceit by Mary Novik, Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant and Heave by Christy Ann Conlin in particular. What a great showcase for Canlit. You have until November 7th to vote.

A Library For Those Who Are Library Challenged

Type Books in Toronto, is offering a new service: for those who need the help, they will curate a library for you. Author and employee, Derek McCormack will put together a personalised library. Whether it's for a new grandma or a film set, Derek will hunt down and put together the perfect collection for you. Derek's skill and expertise make him a dream choice for this role. Check out the link for more info. What a fab idea!

A Little Bit of Literary Glasgow. . .

As any librarian or library user knows, you can tell a lot about a city from its libraries, not just the collection but the design, the programming, the location etc.  When exploring a city for the first time I always go and visit their main branch, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Glasgow's Mitchell Library is the largest public reference library in Europe! And apparently has one of the best collections of resources for researching your family history.   

It's a lovely blend of the old and new - unfortunately what seemed to be the main reading room was closed as they were mounting some sort of exhibition. But it certainly was a busy and inspiring place to read or study in, and a great place to stop en route to chasing down almost every bit of Charles Rennie Macintosh architecture/design to be seen in Glasgow.

Then you have to love a city that celebrates its writers with a major statue in the heart of downtown.  This is Sir Walter Scott (and friend) looking down on George Square.

Friday Film Fest: I Know Where I'm Going. . .

This week's movie pick is a tribute to my recent hiking holiday in the Scottish Highlands. If you found the book or movie of Eat, Pray, Love a bit saccharine, then Powell and Pressburger's charming 1945 movie I Know Where I'm Going is the perfect antidote.  Unlike Elizabeth Gilbert, Joan Webster, played by the indomitable Wendy Hiller, has her whole life mapped out and she knows exactly where she's going - up to Scotland by train and then by boat to a remote island where she plans to marry one of the richest men in England. Except bad weather keeps her on the mainland, and in the company of a naval officer who is determined to thwart her plans and change the course of her life.  But what these two works do share - and why travelling is such great fun - is the important lesson that one should always be completely open to chance and change, in whatever guise it appears.  The movie, though in black and white, has spectacular shots of the Scottish landscape; much of it was shot on the Isle of Mull and among the Hebrides.

Having spent a week bagging Munros and Corbetts in unseasonably sunny weather, I can attest to the utter beauty of this area from all heights. And yes, I ate (and ate and ate - salmon, lamb, venison, Scottish flapjack and lots of chocolate) and while I'm not particularly religious, how could you not climb up through the clouds to a view like this and not feel spiritual?

Not even a third of the way up Ben Nevis yet, but how beautiful is this?

As for love?  Well, that would be telling. Suffice it to say that Javier Bardem did not come riding out of the mist in a kilt. But then, he'd look rather foolish in one, don't you think?

Busman's Holiday Part II. . .

Of course another wonderful way to engage with words and language is to take in some live theatre which London always has in abundance. I love this city's theatre scene - without fail, I know at least some of my favourite British actors are always guaranteed to be somewhere on stage in the West End, and it's very easy to get tickets outside of peak tourist season.  So I saw a very sexy and superbly acted production of Noel Coward's Design For Living at the Old Vic, and then a hilarious Yes, Prime Minister at the Gielgud starring the wonderful David Haig (Bernard from Four Weddings and a Funeral) who I've seen several times on stage and always love. Simon Russell Beale is another favourite actor of mine (so terrific as Widmerpool in the 1997 mini-series of  Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time); I'll go to see him in anything, no questions asked.  He was starring in Ira Levin's Death Trap at the Noel Coward Theatre, a fun comic thriller spoofing country house murder mysteries, involving an egotistical and desperate playwright and plagiarist.

I'll also see anything at the Royal Court which is always doing daring productions and launching the careers of new playwrights, and I caught Nick Payne's new play Wanderlust which contrasted the challenges that couples face in their sex lives at different ages.  What I love about this theatre is that when you buy the program you are actually getting the full text of the play and at a much reduced cost than buying the book later in a bookshop.

But the best, the absolute BEST, was discovering that father and son acting duo Timothy and Samuel West were reviving their production of Caryl Churchill's A Number. Oh, I love, love this play and got to see it performed in a terrific space - the old Menier Chocolate Factory which has been converted into a theatre and restaurant.  If you enjoyed reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, or like dystopian fiction, this is a very good companion piece. Salter is confronted by his grown-up son who has just discovered that not only has he been cloned, but that he might not even be the original. Then two other unexpected encounters occur. Samuel West (you'll know him best as Leonard Bast - he who dies from a falling bookcase - in Merchant and Ivory's 1992 movie Howard's End; he also gave a wonderful performance as Anthony Blunt in the mini-series Cambridge Spies) plays all three of the sons and to see an actual father and son tackle these roles was truly marvellous.